Organization

The Internet Activities Board (IAB) is the primary coordinating committee for Internet design, engineering, and management.RFC-1310, RFC-1310, describes the Internet Standards Process. A summary of that document is reproduced here. The IAB has delegated to its Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) the primary responsibility for the development and review of potential Internet Standards from all sources. The IETF forms Working Groups to pursue specific technical issues, frequently resulting in the development of one or more specifications that are proposed for adoption as Internet Standards.

Final decisions on Internet standardization are made by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Any member of the Internet community with the time and interest is urged to attend IETF meetings and to participate actively in one or more IETF Working Groups. Working Groups accomplish most of the tasks via e-mail; IETF attendance is not a requirement for contributing meaningfully to a Working Group. Participation is by individual technical contributors, rather than formal representatives of organizations. The process works because the IETF Working Groups display a spirit of cooperation as well as a high degree of technical maturity; most IETF members agree that the greatest benefit for all members of the Internet community results from cooperative development of technically superior protocols and services.

The status of specifications on the Internet standards track is summarized periodically in a summary RFC entitled "IAB Official Protocol Standards". This RFC shows the level of maturity and other helpful information for each Internet protocol or service specification. The IAB views the RFC publication process to be sufficiently important to warrant including the RFC Editor in the IAB membership.

The "IAB Official Protocol Standards" RFC is the authoritative statement of the status of any particular Internet specification, and it is the "Publication of Record" with respect to Internet standardization.